Damara Megido
the Handmaid}} Damara Megido is the Witch of Time and Aradia's dancestor. Conflicts within the team provoked by Meenah Peixes ultimately embittered her and turned her against the entire team. She was responsible for initiating the scratch on the Cardinal Movement, rebooting the session. Etymology Damara is named after the Damara, a breed of domestic sheep. The name was originally suggested by Beelzebibble for Aradia. While Damara is the name of a Celtic fertility goddess, the name could also be a play on the Japanese profanity word "だまれ", or "damare", which translates to "shut up", or any rude way of commanding someone to keep their mouth shut. It also alludes to her speaking often rude language, albeit in Japanese. Biography Before their Sgrub session, Damara was a member of the Lost Weeaboos, a guild of tree-dwelling troll otakus living in secrecy in the forest. It was here which she met Rufioh Nitram, and the two eventually entered a flushed relationship, one which ended bitterly for Damara when Rufioh ended up cheating on her with Horuss Zahhak. Despite being deeply wounded by this, it wasn't until Sgrub that she performed an acrobatic fucking pirouette off the deep end. Damara was the Time player of the A1 session, and so her planet in the Medium (which bears a strong resemblance to Aradia's Land of Quartz and Melody) housed the session's scratch construct, the Cardinal Movement. In her efforts to rile up the team, Meenah Peixes took to harassing Damara, particularly on the subject of her former relationship with Rufioh, which ultimately caused Damara to snap. Now feeling thoroughly vengeful, she paralyzed Rufioh from the neck down, causing Horuss to build Rufioh a robotic horse body to compensate; it is also implied by her that she may have killed Horuss at some point. Eventually, she engaged Meenah in a brutal duel, in which she ultimately won and killed Meenah in revenge, this being the cause for Meenah's god tier ascension; it does not appear that Damara was also killed and ascended during this fight, or at least Damara herself would not say if she did. From here, it is implied she began using her time powers to wreak havoc on the session, appearing at various points to sabotage everyone's efforts. The only time she cooperated with the team was when they needed to initiate the scratch, which she performed gleefully. Before the scratch could take effect, Damara was killed along with the rest of the team by Meenah's bomb, ensuring their survival as ghosts in the Furthest Ring. In Openbound Part 3 , Aranea Serket gives Meenah a biography of Damara's life and role in their session: : Ironically, of course, all Damara's Alternian self got out of the reboot was a lifetime of bitter servitude to and as the Handmaid, though it is possible that at that point, utterly corrupting troll society would have been something she wanted her future self to do, therefore fitting the description of her "wildest fantasies." When Meenah was rallying up the ghost army, it was clear that Damara (along with Kurloz, Aranea and other Vriskas besides the main one) were not present. It can be inferred that she chose not to, due to her turmoil with Meenah as well as her dedication to . Because of her lack of plot relevance, it isn't shown what she's doing during the time of the battle. Personality and Traits Damara bears a very strong resemblance to her post-scratch self during her time imprisoned by - she wears similar if differently colored clothing, has the same bun hairstyle, and uses the same Strife Specibus (either Wand or Needlekind); this is acknowledged in-comic by Andrew Hussie, who remarks that he should never have freed her from 's care and that her teen delinquent behaviour is a product of being raised by , though this was very likely a joke. Damara peppers her speech with crude, aggressively lascivious remarks at any opportunity, even with Meenah (whom she hates). It is uncertain whether she actually means her remarks as an honest invitation, or if she is simply taking advantage of the language barrier to mess with others without response. Between her ribald remarks, however, lies much fatalism and frustration. According to Aranea, Damara's personality took this drastic shift after repeated bullying from Meenah regarding Rufioh's betrayal, coaxing her from despair to a quiet, unyielding anger. When speaking with the kids, she seemed very kind and spoke in broken english with them. It is unknown whether or not she was just playing them to make them think of her as harmless, though. Damara is shown to have no qualms about locking her former matesprit's lusus in a chest, and it is heavily implied that she used her time abilities to meddle with her teammates in revenge. Relationships Rufioh Nitram Damara was in a relationship with Rufioh until their relationship ended because Rufioh started cheating on her with Horuss. As previously mentioned this event was the target of Meenah's harassment, which triggered a big change in Damara and she started to distance herself from her former friends. Rufioh does still confide in Damara things about his current relationship that he wouldn't tell others, and she seems to offer advice (albeit biased advice), though she still seems to play cruel pranks on him from time to time. Meenah Peixes Meenah, under the flimsy guise of being a "good leader" and "helping her team", heavily bullied and harassed Damara. She specifically targeted Damara's failed relationship with Rufioh, bringing the poor girl even more anger and pain from the almost healing wound. At the same time Meenah was harassing Damara, "other forces" were said to be at play. We can only assume it is talking about 's influence. After Damara snaps and kills Meenah and cripples Rufioh, she goes on to be generally distant from her friend group. Kurloz is a potential exception to this since he and Damara both serve . However, no interactions between Kurloz and Damara have been shown so far. Porrim Maryam Unlike some of the A1 trolls, Porrim seems to hold some affection for Damara. She treats Damara as one might treat a friend in need, saying to her "We'll talk later," when the player approaches her and Kanaya as Damara in the third part of Openbound. Although seeming somewhat annoyed by Damara's intrusion, Porrim's comment implies that she cares enough about Damara to maintain some semblance of a friendship or at least an amicable relationship with her, which is more than can be said for some of her fellow A1 trolls. Horuss Zahhak The connection between Damara and Horuss is largely obscured, but Damara is said to constantly warn Rufioh of the weakness of his matespritship. Horuss is unable to have meaningful conversations with her, since he cannot understand her lowblood speak. She has also called him a freak at one point and it was heavily implied that she's killed him before. Aradia Megido At some point in the afterlife, Damara seems to have met Aradia in some capacity, as Aradia appears to be familiar enough with Damara's behaviour to express relief at Meenah not seeing any resemblance between the two. Terezi and Latula Pyrope Latula is well aware of Damara and her destructive tendencies, as she saw the need to threaten Damara to protect Mituna's sleeping body from her. Terezi is apparently also aware of Damara, as she similarly threatens her away from a sleeping Karkat. Trivia *Damara's Japanese speech is intentionally shitty and intended to be clearly evident as such to those who speak the language; it was generated by writing her dialogue in English, then running it through Google Translate. As Hussie puts it, During the game, a link is provided to , intended to allow people to run it through Google Translate to see what she is saying. *Her title, as the Witch of Time, is part of a progression concerning pre- and post-scratch Class changes between Dancestors. The pre-scratch trolls included the titles , , , and , while the post-scratch session included the , , , and . *Damara killing Meenah draws a parallel to Aradia killing Vriska. In both cases, each was bullied in some way by the other person and became violent after starting the game. Both murders allowed the killed person to ascend to god tier. **Both victims were Thieves, and both murderers were Megidos and consequently heroes of Time. *In Ministrife, Damara and Rufioh are seen dressed up as a couple from the anime/manga Sailor Moon. This references that they were part of the "lost weeaboos" and their past relationship. *Just like Aradia's, her talksprite doesn't display pointed teeth. *During Openbound, Damara is seen smoking a joint of something. While the contents could have been something different than the traditional human soporific, like perhaps Sopor Slime or catnip (which Meulin and Kurloz are implied to smoke in part 3 of Openbound), or she may have been smoking it just for the offensive appearance similar to her crude sexual advances, this could also potentially mean that trolls are affected by marijuana in much the same way humans are. It is, however, quite certain that she was influenced by human culture, since the other trolls are confused about Cronus's cigarettes, and even he himself doesn't seem to fully grasp the concept as he says lighting it would be a waste. *Both Damara and Aradia's full names can both be accurately spelt in Japanese (ダマラ メギド and アラディア メギド, respectively). See also *Damara Megido/Translation ru:Дамара Мегидо Category:Trolls Category:Homestuck Protagonists/Allies Category:Homestuck Antagonists/Enemies Category:Dancestors